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\f ISAIAH THORNTON WILLIAMS, 



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PRESENTATION OF COLORS 



FIFTH REGIMENT OF MAINE VOLl'NTEERS, ^ 



IN THE CITY HALL PARK, 



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On the -27tli day olJiiiii-. iSiOl. 



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8. BRADFORD. BOOK 4 Jol? PRIKTER, lir, FULTON STREFT. 
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ISATAH TllOUNTON WTLLIAMS, 



PRESENTATION OF COLORS 



FIFTH RFIJIMENT OF MM I'OLllNTEERSi, 



IN THE CITY HALL PARK. 



IN TIIK CITY OF NEW YORK, 



On iln' '"Hi ilav olJiinr. ISfil. 



S. BRADFORD, IJdOK & JDU I'RINTER. u:< FULTON STREET. 

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Colonel DuNNELL,'Ofikers, and Soldiers of tlie 
Fifth Regiment of Maine Volunteers — Citizens of 
New York, who claim, in common with you, a 
birth-[)laci' upon the soil of that gallant State 
which you have just left, beg you to accept, as 
your Regimental Colors, this Standard. They have 
witnessed with satisfaction the prompt and enthu- 
siastic response of their native State to the Execu- 
tive call. They participate in the pride with 
which she has sent, and is still sending, to ihe 
battle-field brave and stalwart men such as 1 now 
see before me. They desire to be identified with 
the fortunes of the land of their birth, and to be 
partakers in the glory to be achieved by her sol- 
diers in this great war for our national existence. 
Accept, therefore, this banner from your brethren 
of New York, in token that, in going out from you, 
they have never ceased to be of yon. The motto 
here inscribed will not only remind you of the na- 
ture of the contest in which you are engaged, but 
it will inspire your hearts with the valor which 
afliic\<Ml tlir frciMlom y<>u an- resolved to main- 
tain — that freedom, who.se voice awakened the 
echoes of the primeval forest, rolled l)ack the 
deep nigiit of barbarism, dispelled the mists of 
superstition, reared the temples of worshij), and 



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the halls of learnino-, endowed the home, and 
hallowed the fireside, established a government on 
the basis of equal rights, formed commercial rehi- 
tions with every nation on the "'lobe, covered the 
whole land with cultivated tields, thriving villages, 
and populous cities, poured into our lap opulence 
and art, embellished life with innumerable im- 
provements and blessings that exalt and ennoble 
our nature, till the whole land had become a 
theatre of wonders on which the admiring gaze 
of the world was fixed in trembling hope of 
human ])rogress, if not of the actual perfectability 
of human nature. The faithful' of the land, the 
hearts that tremble for the ark of our political 
destinies — for our future onward and upward jjro- 
gress — have committe<l tliis gi-eat, this inestimable, 
treasure to the armed bands who have left, and 
who are now, like you, leaving the avocations of 
peace in obedience to the stern call of war. It 
is for you to determine whether this freedom shall 
yet survive, or be shrouded with a funereal pall, 
and wrapped in eternal gloom. The magnitude 
of the cause will swell your hearts with all that 
is lofty in sentiment, inspiring and holy in hope, 
enthusiastic and noble in. daring. Baptize this 
banner with all the sentiment, the enthusiasm, the 
hopes, the inspirations which your cause cannot 
fail to awaken ; and let it be the flaming pillar 
which beckons you on — 

" Where ^;llo\vel■s 



" The death-bolt, deadliest the thin liles along, 

" Even where the thickest of war's tempest lowers." 



Count not his life lost who falls upon the field 
of honor. The hearts that" break I'oi' him, when 
the lightning wires have Ijrought his honored 
name to tin- banks of ihe Saco, will yet glow, 
if it he in broken fragments, with [iridc and exid- 
tation. Some gra3-haired man will tell how I'ell 
his fondest, best-beloved sun, while lushing into 
the thickest of the fight — fell eovered with wounds, 
yet ''scorned to yield a groan in dying." Some 
mother's vision — who [lays that higher tribute of 
silence to the dead — will see tlie hero's smile upon 
the radiant face of her dying boy- — 

" As lie turns liis eye and sjuvads his hand, 
" To the star above his native land." 



The memory ol" the dead, who so shall fall, will 
live bright in village annals, and manv a nianlv 
eye be moistened whe'ii, in time to come, he shall 
recall the events of this war. and recount the l)rave 



who fell. The annal 
pages of history. 



war are the brijrhtest 



l)nu;ht naiin/s do hallow sunn;." 



The scene of each Ixittle-lield lives anew in vurse 
and story, and is sun<^ and related by continents 
of men, !"ar, lar removeil by birth, by language, 
and bv time IVom tliL' contending parties — rcIattMl. 
too, with all the emotion and enthusiasm that can 
animatf,' our common nature. Wli(», without emo- 
tion, has ever icad ol" L(;onidas, wilii his three 
hundred, holding the pass ol" Thermopyhv against 



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the myriads of Xerxes ' Of Reding on the field 
of Morgarteii, at the head of a liandfnl of Swiss 
peasants, driving back the legions of France l 
Would Sir John Moore have felt one pang of 
regret had destiny warned him before-hand of his 
heroic fall in the moment of victory beneath the 
walls of Coraniia if Would Nelson have regretted 
the quarter-deck on which he was doomed to meet 
a hero's death i Would Warren have sorrowed at 
the saci'ifice his oWn self-devoting heai't forced 
upon him at Bunker Hill ^ Natliau Hall was hung 
as a spy on this very Island — it may be, on the 
very spot whereon w'e now stand. He suffered, 
as he thought, alone, with no one to tell his story. 
Yet— 

" lie lives in the verso tiiat imuiortulh" saves." 



But you will not i'all. The nation will not fall. 
Liberty w^ill not be driven from her last asylum. 
You go accompanied with every omen of triumph. 
Civilization, Liberty, Religion, summon you to the 
field. They are interested in your success. They 
seem to liaiig suspended in the balances of war. 
The illustrious dead, wdiose hands wove the glori- 
ous fabric of our free government, are watching 
with intense anxiety the issue of this contest. 
Voices, solemn as that wliich from the tomb of 
Achilles warned his countrymen not to leave un- 
honored the memory of the slain, now urge the 
patriot forward in defence of liberty, mitionality, 
and civilization, whose very essence is periled in 



the iin))ai';illelltMl criim' wliich 1 Iii-(";i1<mi.s the iiite<^'- 
i-itv of onr rnioii. Tlic tnic-licarlcil nf nil cjistcs 
and I'l-ec'ds, n\' all polilical associations, ami of all 
party dcnoiniiialions, liavo "sworn by Him tliat 
sittetli u])on the thronr, ami livdli loi-cvcr and 
ever/' that tho swoi'd now drawn shall never be 
returned to its scabbard until our i^lorious banner 
shall wave in trium])h alike at Charleston and New 
(h'leans — over the walls ol' Sumter and alonii' the 
Mississi])})i — ^until it shall lie I'ecoi^-ni/ed and hon- 
ored u[)(»n ever\' inch of territory ovei' which, in 
tiu:; proudest days of the Kepublic, it waved, and 
until th(» leaders in this nefarious and unprovoked 
rel)ellion shall have expiated their offence where 
criminals nuike their last expiation to the loyal. 

" O day tlirici.' lovely I when at lencftli the soldier 

" Ketiirns lioine into lilb. 

" Tlu' colors are nnturled ; tlu' eavaleadc 

" Marshals, and now the bu/z is Inished, and hark I 

"Now the soft jieacc-iiianh heats, "Home, hrotliers,* home." 

•• The r;\\» aiiij hfliiicts are all ii'arlaiided 

•• Willi n;r<'eii lioiitjhs, tiie la'-t pliimh-rini:; <<f tin- fields. 

•' The eifv ijates Hv open of themselves ; 

"The ramparts arc all tilleil wilii men and women, 

" With )«eaeetnl men and wom<'n, who send onwards 

'• Kis,ses and welcominus upon th** air, 

*• Whiih tliey mak<' l)ree/y with attection's ixestmcs — 

** Fr»)m all tiie towers rintr out the merry ]>eal, 

■' The joyous vespers of a liloody day." 

Sustained by itiHuence and buoyed by hopes like 
these, uo forth, ve defenders ol' your country! 
And mav III', to wliom th(* shields ftf the earth 



Ix'loufi;, j)rot(H'l yon in Ihc il;iy of l>attl('I ^hiy 
He iii,s|)ii'(' von with Mnil ussninnce o(" snceess 
which s))i'inu,s from His prcsiMUM.^ ! M;i\- He 
breathe into Nonr hciirls the spirit of (h'pnrted 
lieroes. and insj)ire \-on with his own I Then, in- 
deed, "shall the sli'oni;' nnm l>e as tow, and the 
maker ol" it. as a- spark ; ami tlie\- shall hnrn lon-p- 
t>;ether, an<l nonc^ sh;dl (pnMieh them. 



